So which was the bigger screwup: the government shutdown or the botched rollout of HealthCare.gov?

The shutdown, according to a new Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, which was conducted Oct. 17-23. This was right after the shutdown ended, and when lots of media attention was being devoted to the federal health insurance exchange's technical problems.

The Kaiser survey found that 44 percent followed the fight over the government shutdown and the nation's debt ceiling "very closely," while only 22 percent said they were paying close attention to HealthCare.gov's failure.

Plus, despite the web site debacle, public opinion about health care reform didn't change much. The poll found that 44 percent had an unfavorable view of the Affordable Care Act, up only 1 percentage point from September. That compares with 38 percent that had a favorable view of the law, down 1 percentage point from September.

The poll found that 60 percent oppose defunding Obamacare as a way to stop the law from being implemented -- the Republican strategy that led to the government shutdown. Nearly half of Americans think Congress should expand health care reform or leave it like it is, compared with 37 percent who favor repeal. There's a sharp divide, as you can imagine, between Democrats and Republicans on this issue.

Americans give lousy marks to both the federal government and states on how they're implementing health care reform. Nearly half said the federal government is doing a poor job -- that number rose to 60 percent among those who followed HealthCare.gov's problems closely. States got a little better grade -- 34 percent rated state implementation of health care reform as fair, and 29 percent rated it as poor.

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